Happy Secretary's Day

Today is officially Secretaries Day -- oops the name recently changed to Administrative Professionals Day. Each year on this occasion, I recall the funny 1980s movie 9 to 5 with Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda. You can see the 9 to 5 movie trailer on YouTube today. It has an interesting description of the challenges of the administrative professionals. Hopefully things have changed a bit during the last 30 years. I would like to see the Broadway musical version of it one day.

I've had more than one assignment as an administrative assistant. One summer during college I temp'd as a typist. Also, in college, after spending one single (interesting, but unsuccessful) day as the college telephone operator, I was assigned as an administrative assistant to Ms Galloway in the Speech and Drama department. I spent weeks typing scripts for the drama department. When Ms Galloway learned that I was a piano performance major, she dismissed me from typing her scripts and told me that she would call me when rehearsals were scheduled for her next production, a musical. I had a wonderful time as accompanist for the musical You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown and even had the opportunity to stay in the dorm on campus for a few weeks for the long rehearsals and performances.

Because of the many years of practicing and performing on the piano, I can type rather fast. My Dad was a fast typist in his day too and challenged me to beat his speed. I passed the speed test rather quickly in high school and never was able to challenge my Dad's record because the teacher immediately assigned me to work on boring tasks while the rest of the class competed in the timed trials. It was not unusual for people to stop outside my office and comment on my fast typing speed.

I must admit that I don't really miss the typewriter. I don't miss the messy task of changing the ribbon and trying to figure out those electric typewriters. Plus, the noise. My Mom and I recently bought a very old typewriter at a garage sale. She thought it would be a collector's item one day. You can see how one group of guys use their old typewriters in the Boston Typewriter Orchestra in many videos on YouTube. However, my favorite use of a typewriter musically can be seen in the YouTube video available here: